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Help Selecting A Computer

JustGeorge

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
My son is getting a new laptop. The price limit is 500.

I know **** about computers.

Which of these is the best deal?











Things to take into account:

Durability. He can be kind of hard on stuff.

Speed. He gets agitated when things run slowly.

Usefulness. I want something for him that will remain useful for a long time.
 
Twilight Hue

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
JustGeorge said:
My son is getting a new laptop. The price limit is 500.

I know **** about computers.

Which of these is the best deal?











Things to take into account:

Durability. He can be kind of hard on stuff.

Speed. He gets agitated when things run slowly.

Usefulness. I want something for him that will remain useful for a long time.
Click to expand...
Probably a gaming laptop. I have a TUF and am happy with its speed and power for the price.
 
Quagmire

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
These days I wouldn't look at anything with less than 16 gigs of RAM. Especially if he's going to be doing a lot of gaming.

I've heard good things about the processor on this one:


AMD processors used to be considered second fiddle to Intel, but their newish Ryzen series have changed that, and the Ryzen 5 5000 is one of their better models.

Some good sites to look at reviews for each of the laptops that you have in mind:
Notebookcheck
PC Mag
GSMArema
CNet

The quickest way to find their review about whatever laptop you're looking at is just to enter the name of the site and then the name of the laptop in Google.

Whenever I'm considering buying any device I always make a point of watching a few reviews on YouTube. You can learn a lot that way and a good reviewer will bring up things that you wouldn't have thought of.

You can also look on Reddit to hear what people who've actually bought that model think about it and what experiences they've had.

*Edit: two of the laptops on your list have Celeron processors which are low end processors, usually found in Chromebooks and budget laptops. I would go with something else.
 
Last edited:
Regiomontanus

Regiomontanus

Eastern Orthodox
JustGeorge said:
My son is getting a new laptop. The price limit is 500.

I know **** about computers.

Which of these is the best deal?











Things to take into account:

Durability. He can be kind of hard on stuff.

Speed. He gets agitated when things run slowly.

Usefulness. I want something for him that will remain useful for a long time.
Click to expand...

My general advice: get an HP.

In terms of hardware specs, it depends on what one uses it for.
 
JustGeorge

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
sun rise said:
I start with use. What will you use it for outside of RF, email and web browsing? One of the choices looks like a tablet. Do you want a tablet or a PC that can be a tablet?
Click to expand...
It isn't for me, it'll be for LeeAnder. He will watch videos. I'm sure he'll want to game some.
 
Quagmire

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
JustGeorge said:
Which two are those?
Click to expand...
The second one and the last one.

Amazon can be kind of stingy with their specs (as far as including the information I mean) but they'll usually tell you what kind of a processor you're looking at, although you might have to read through the page to find it.
 
Quagmire

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
As far as durability and longevity go, you might want to look at some Asus laptops. Their famous for both of those features and they're generally in the same price range as Lenovo.
 
Quagmire

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
JustGeorge said:
It isn't for me, it'll be for LeeAnder. He will watch videos. I'm sure he'll want to game some.
Click to expand...
That being the case you might want to ask him if he'd rather have a tablet than a laptop.

Tablets are generally more durable, less moving parts to break, and you can get something with decent specs for cheaper than you would have to pay with a laptop.

The biggest compromise would be that he would have to settle for a smaller screen: something between 10 and 12 inches as opposed to a 14 inch screen on the laptops you're looking at.

I prefer tablets myself when it comes to watching movies and playing games. They're just more convenient.
 
sun rise

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
JustGeorge said:
It isn't for me, it'll be for LeeAnder. He will watch videos. I'm sure he'll want to game some.
Click to expand...
Gaming can be an extreme money pit. Work Hard, Play Harder, and Save Money with the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500 has a comparison between $500, $1000 and $1500 Note the comment about compatibility. Buying him one that he can't use to play a game he wants to play might not be an ideal state of affairs.

Our advice is to spend a little more than $500 if you can—dedicated GPU laptops are available starting at around $700 and offer more longevity and compatibility with later games.​
 
JustGeorge

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
Its confusing for me, because I know absolutely nothing. When I get a computer, I pick a price range, and then ask the salesperson "does this play Sims 3?" I go with the cheapest 'yes' option.

I asked him to pick 5, and then I'd ask around to try to figure out which is the best. :D

(And here I am.)
 
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